Axele Introduces Team Drivers & Terminal Management Features to Help Combat Truck Driver Shortages

Improves Productivity, Efficiency, and Speeds Earned Pay to Drivers

Axele, LLC, a Transportation Management System (TMS) company, introduces Teams and Terminals functionality for improved productivity and efficiency. Support for team drivers keeps loads moving and allows carriers to stay on the road longer, while the Terminal feature helps larger carriers better manage regional bases.

Team drivers, two drivers assigned to a single truck, work together on the same load assignments. Hours of service (HoS) rules let one driver take their mandatory rest, while the other driver takes over the shift and keeps the load moving to the destination.

“A driving team can stay on a trip longer than a single driver. Full schedules, full pay, plus rest make drivers happier and more likely to stay on the job. Making drivers’ jobs better minimizes any driver shortage,” says Ryan Camacho, Director of Strategy & Business Development, Axele. “Husband and wife teams, especially enjoy driving together for companionship on the road. Team driving makes longer trips less lonely and helps time pass quicker.”

The Axele Teams feature allows dispatchers and trip planners to visualize drivers’ schedules. Seeing solo drivers and teams on a weekly Gantt chart ensures proper assignment of loads with no overlap. Axele TMS integrates HoS data from electronic logging devices (ELD), so dispatchers and schedulers can see the availability of all drivers and teams. Clear availability information enables better scheduling of the transport plan.

Other features include support to:

• Assign trucks and trailers to a solo driver or team
  
• Assign loads to a solo driver or team
  
• Assign teams to carry the entire load or split loads
  
• Pay drivers when they drive as a team, splitting the miles earned and paying according to their individual rates and payment terms.
  

The Terminals feature supports regional home bases, or terminals, in a carrier’s geographic footprint. Each terminal can have its own set of drivers, trucks, and trailers. Axele lets carriers create individual terminal profiles with company, drivers, tractors, trailers, DOT#, MC#, and more. Once the planner establishes a terminal, the carrier can assign loads by terminal, track activity by terminal, pay drivers by terminal, monitor invoices by terminal, and see trends or analytics by terminal.

“Axele empowers carriers to create terminal-specific invoices and track performance by terminal, once they assign drivers and equipment to that terminal,” adds Mr. Camacho. “For security and privacy, managers can filter views so that employees only see the data for their respective terminals. This granular security allows appropriate information sharing via TMS and lets managers have full transparency at the primary account level.”